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Russian Info, Cyber and Disinformation (Catch all till 2017)

I found this story on a link on a Russian news agency from a report about the Russian Navy making its first visit to Cuba since 1991.

Foretellers: Russia will dominate the world

"Recently, Russia pulled off a hat trick: hockey, football and Eurovision. The country was ecstatic and there was jubilation in the air. The press was obsessed about it, and still are. Among all the chaos I read the following comment on the Internet: When the Northern Empire wins on Ice and Grass and its Clown sings his song, Red Clouds will cover the Sky and the Apocalypse will come. This grim prophecy was said to have been one of the Bulgarian prophetess Vanga's predictions, and that made me think about Russia's future. Sear*ching for some evidence to substantiate the claim, I found out the passage was a harmless joke. Still, there are lots of prophecies about Russia that make people sit up and pay attention.

Vanga was born at the turn of the 20th century and died 12 years ago at the age of 84. Her gift of prophesy made her popular, and soon politicians visited her to have their fortunes told.

Among her most shocking predictions is what she had predicted in 1980: In August of 1999 or 2000, Kursk will be covered with water and the whole world will be weeping over it. Twenty years later, the nuclear submarine "Kursk" perished in an accident.

...

One of the popular predictions about Russia is that when the permafrost thaws and the floods come, nothing will survive on Earth but Russia. The climate will change and Russia will occupy the best inhabitable zone. Plus, Russia is predicted to herald in world peace and flourish in the face of good fortune.

Vanga also once said: "Everything melts away like ice yet the glory of Vladimir, the glory of Russia are the only things that will remain. Russia will not only survive, it will dominate the world."

Russia is on a roll with assorted victories. Whether we can believe that Russia will initiate world peace, however, remains to be seen. "

Russia's Future

The progression of Russia definitely warrants observation. Nearly a year ago FRONTLINE chronicled how Putin planned to stay in power, and how serious opposition was disqualified http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/russia703/. This is a problem that should not and can not be ignored. While the issues facing America are great, Russia requires serious and frank discussion.

Same old story?

Does kinda have a Goebbels/Nostradamus feel to it.

But don't worry, the Russians are our friends. After they convinced Kyrgyzstan to close Manas for $2 Billion in loans they agreed to allow us to ship in non-military supplies across their territory as long as we give them a list of everything that is in the shipments. I wonder if they will require us to buy all our fuel from them. I am sure they wouldn't dare to cut the transportation link for some perceived violation of the agreement or cut off the fuel ala natural gas to Ukraine when it suits them.

Russian Cyber & Info Ops (Ukraine & more)

On Saturday March 1st, the Russian Parliament approved the use of armed forces in the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine,[1] marking the first possible major Russian military operation since the 2008 invasion of Georgia. In the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, Russia demonstrated the capacity to conduct joint kinetic and cyber operations in pursuit of its political and military objectives.[2] Now, there is evidence that Russia is pursing similar tactics in Crimea.

It's called "Snake" and it's being compared to another alleged state-run virus, Stuxnet. And yes, all evidence points to Russia.

According to British-based BAE systems, dozens of computer networks have been infected with the virus, which sometimes goes by the name Ouroboros (named after the serpent in Greek mythology). It works by giving remote attackers "full remote access to the compromised system." It has stealth qualities, including the ability to stay inactive for a number of days.

"The web brigades(Russian: Веб-бригады )[1] are alleged astroturfing groups linked to the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. They are purported to be teams of commentators that participate in political blogs and Internet forums to promote disinformation and prevent free discussions of undesirable subjects"

Having read my fair share of articles there is a surprising amount of much-'liked' comments on quite prominent newspapers which seem to come straight out of the Kremlin, with a free use of 'Nazi', 'fascists' and so forth. In some occasions other posters commented that the writer stucking to the Kremlin line had only joined very recently and devoted all of his posts to the Ukrainian crisis. I don't doubt that there is a fair number of guys working out of their own initiative but if we consider that the Kremlin has also payed Russian 'tourists', 'self-defense' forces, and funded anti-Western protesters it seems very unlikely that we don't see much of the same in Cyberspace.

Exactly this need to pay for most of the supporting actions is a quite striking difference to the vastly bottom-up nature of the Ukrainian maidan movement. Then again this has been the general political problem, as I have mentioned before, for Putin relative to the West, especially in regard to eastern European countries. The European attraction is a massive, vastly natural headwind for Russia in this struggle. It has to work very hard, with all sorts of clever actions, just to not lose ground.

... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

Book Review: ‘Russian-born Disinformation’ Breeds Terror, Slanders US

Fascinating writeup from last year that's oh-so-timely today, considering the source is RIA Novosti.

WASHINGTON, June 26 (by Karin Zeitvogel for RIA Novosti) – The Kremlin has practiced a homegrown technique called disinformation for centuries, including using it to slander the United States, fan the flames of anti-Semitism and convince “much of the world” that US government was behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 50 years ago, a new book by former Romanian spy chief Ion Mihai Pacepa says.

“Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism,” also alleges that seeds of “Russian-born disinformation” were sown in the United States during the 2008 presidential campaign of then senator Barack Obama, although they haven’t reached the same level of sophistication as in the Kremlin, which has been practicing disinformation since tsarist days.

By a decree of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, “On the Establishment of the Information Agency Novosti,” the Information Agency Novosti (IAN) succeeded APN on July 27, 1990. “To provide information support for the USSR’s state domestic and foreign policies and proceeding from the interests of the democratization of the mass media,” the Novosti Press Agency was renamed the Information Agency Novosti (IAN).

That statement of the obvious has what to do with the subject of the thread?

Cited material in the original post of the thread:

The Kremlin has practiced a homegrown technique called disinformation for centuries

They were never all that good at; much of their stuff was pretty crude. The Americans were marginally better. Of course it was (and is) also fashionable for ideologues of all points on the compass to denounce reportage or opinions they dislike as "disinformation".

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”

The definition of disinformation that is used in the book isn't what you were commenting on. You're comment, and my initial response, had more to do with misinformation. The word as it is defined in the book is something that would be done by agents of influence I believe.

What kind of culture modern day Russia is cultivating? Is this narrative ok to west? They have cultivated the victim story since 1991. They have will to get revanche. Should west help Russia to aquire (feeding state buget) enough capacities achieve revanhce?

1. You may call it Paternalistic Consumerism. Ask Westerners if it's OK to them.
2. Bravo Sierra. There is a story of "golden age lost due to the sins of fathers", victimness is marginal in our culture, left to a bunch of crack-pot conspiracy theorists and orthodox nuts. While Ukrainian political and culture establishment is raving about Ukraine - an eternal victim of bloodthirsty neighbours.